5 Reasons Why a DIY Approach to Pest Control Fails

Stephanie Craft
3 min readMay 10, 2017

A lot of people opt for Do-It-Yourself strategies when it comes to getting rid of unwanted pests, purely for economic reasons. It is a widespread belief and in fact a common misconception that pest control services are a costly affair. I feel there is nothing more valuable than human life and a few incidents every now and then are enough to reinforce my belief in professional pest control services over a DIY approach. One such incident is mentioned in an article published in CNN, a grim reminder of what can go wrong if we don’t know what we are doing and how we are doing it.

DIY vs. Pest Control Services

Let me cut to the chase and outline five important reasons why I believe a DIY pest control approach fails and how professionals in this field are worth their weight in gold:

  1. Getting to the Root Cause: One of the most common problems with a DIY pest control approach is that you might end up tackling the pest problem on a temporary basis but might not address the underlying cause. Researching the cause of the problem is important to find a more permanent solution. For instance, you might be able to successfully trap rodents but if your yard is filled with cardboard boxes and stacks of wood, then these rodents will keep coming back, says an expert from Heritage Pest Control.
  2. Delays Can Be Lethal: Taking the example of rodents forward, did you know that there are a host of diseases that can be directly transmitted by rodents? Plague, Lassa Fever, Tularemia, Leptospirosis and Salmonellosis are just few of these many diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
  3. Safe for Children and Pets: The CNN story mentioned above talks of the unfortunate death of four children in Texas, something that could have been avoided. This example brings home an important point that hiring the services of an experienced professional is always a safe bet, instead of delegating this all-important task to an untrained person in order to save a few bucks.
  4. Environment Friendly: A professional pest control agency will always use FDA-approved material in its fight against those pesky pests in your home, including rodents, cockroaches, fleas, skunks, spiders, termites and more. Another benefit of delegating the task to a professional is that they are adept at handling wildlife and can safely trap them without causing harm and later release them in the wild.
  5. Understanding Life Cycles and Habits: Ever wondered why the pests you get rid of keep coming back to your home or commercial property? A trained eye will help you seal entry areas from where these pests gain access to your property, such as vent covers and chimneys.

I feel, at the end of the day, not everything can be measured in terms of just its monetary value. Even if that becomes a benchmark, you must weigh the healthcare costs that will result in the event of a disease being spread by pests.

--

--